Baldwin wasn’t plugging any new project, nor was he eager to answer questions from Carolla. Instead, he used his air time to vent about journalism (again), feign indifference regarding the many unpleasant stories about him and, mostly likely, continue to do damage control on his career.

“I’ve had the entire Internet shoved up my ass for the past few months. Is there anything you can recommend for that?” Baldwin said, laughing.

Carolla tried to ask what specific issue was bugging him at the moment, but Baldwin wouldn’t bite.

“It’s not even worth going into … in the end, who cares?” Baldwin said. Obviously, Baldwin cares deeply, either for personal reasons or fear his career could be hurt by the fallout.

The podcaster treated his guest with great care and deference, while Baldwin complained about the crush of commentary in the culture today.

“All of journalism, from one end to the other, it’s all opinion and analysis. The facts are lost,” Baldwin said.

The two then discussed how people in the public eye can be called terrible names–sexist, racist, for example–without actually doing something to prove they feel that way in their hearts.

“We’re living at a time when you can be called an arsonist without striking a single match,” Carolla said. “You used to have to earn it.”

Baldwin briefly admitted he had done and said things “in the zip code” of being a hater. He quickly backpedaled, insinuating he had simply criticized certain people who happened to be gay, and then was labeled a homophobe as a result.

Ironically, the channel Baldwin briefly called home makes it its business to hammer people who criticize President Barack Obama as racist for the crime of disagreeing with his policies. Yet Baldwin never seemed too concerned about that before or after his lightning-fast MSNBC career.

In short, Baldwin is angry he’s getting caught in a P.C. language trap his fellow liberals have been using for years against their ideological enemies. Yet while the Left conjures up “code words” and other mystical attempts to change plain language into hate speech, Baldwin actually uses hate speech. Often.